Blood Hunter (The Grandor Descendant Series) (48 page)

The Blood Hunter Curse-

Behold the power that doth sleep,

And twist and turn and slowly creep

Never ending, the powerful vine

Naught destroys this blood line,

Blood for blood from vessel to vessel,

Then blood to page to form a trestle

Smeared in circle from start to end

Thus the blood power shall be lend

“But what the hell does that mean?” Chris said dramatically. “We can’t undo it? You witches and your damn riddles.”

“Oh, we can undo it alright,” said Lea, pointing to an image, “but we need to find a sink for the power; someone will have to take it in. This means that the power of the blood hunter’s line can’t be destroyed; it can only be transferred.”

A sink; what did that mean? Ari looked down at the picture that Lea had indicated. There was a young woman holding two jugs. Her long hair cascaded down her face, past her shoulders and came to rest near her hips. She appeared to be pouring a liquid of some sort; there was a red jug held up high and its contents were tipping into the empty white jug below. And suddenly Ari understood; you couldn’t destroy the power, you had to find a new home for it.

“Well there goes that great plan,” said Chris, standing up and staggering back over to his bed.

“I think you need to rest,” said Ari, turning to look at Chris.

“I think I just took us on a round trip for nothing,” Chris replied gruffly, bashing his pillow as he tried to get comfortable.

“Can’t we find something to put it in, rather than someone?” asked Ari, picturing a volcano or lightning bolt.

“No,” said Lea, looking back down at the book, “it can only go from one soul to another.”

“So what?” said Ari loudly, “that’s it; we just give up?”

“No,” said Lea, also standing, “we fight. You’re the Grandor descendant; it’s your destiny to kill vampires and I am with you one hundred percent.”

As soon as Lea spoke, Ari felt Chris behind her. It seemed Lea’s words had empowered him. He was suddenly looking taller and revived, and somehow confident.

“That blood hunter doesn’t stand a chance; we have a witch, wraith and the Grandor descendant!” he said.

“And a heap of vampires,” Ari added.

“Yea, I am sure they will help too,” Chris replied, smirking.

Lea let a small giggle fill the room and Ari smiled too. Who knew a witch and a wraith would bond over vampire puns? With the number of tasteless vampire jokes Chris had, Lea and Chris could be lifelong friends.

Chapter 27 – Some Things Worth Dying For

The hours leading up until Thomas’s meeting with the blood hunter seemed to slip through the covens fingers, like sand falling through an hour glass. Before they knew it, the filtered sunlight of the day was fading, signalling that it was early afternoon. The group agreed that the best place to wait for instructions from the blood hunter would be in the forest near Delta house, that way they wouldn’t be overheard as they planned their attack. There were nine of them all told; Ari, Ragon, Lea, Chris, Ryder, Patrick, Clyde, Riley and Thomas, and a stranger group you couldn’t imagine. Each was dressed in their own version of loose combat attire. Ryder and Patrick wore matching full length green cargo pants with olive button up shirts and open vests. To top it all off, they had also painted two small black lines across their cheeks, giving them the appearance of particularly well dressed football players.

“See, we blend in perfectly,” said Patrick, laughing.

On the other hand, Thomas, Ragon and Clyde all wore jeans with long sleeved t-shirts, while Chris wore shorts and a jumper. Ari stared at the holes in Chris’s clothes and wondered for a moment why he had chosen such an obviously worn and beaten outfit, until she recalled his ability to transform into a husky, destroying anything he was wearing at the same time. Wearing second hand clothes was probably a necessity for him, and tonight there might be no warning before he had to shift from man into dog.

Finally Ari glanced at Lea and then Riley, before looking down at herself. All three wore similar skinny legged jeans with sneakers and casual shirts. It felt oddly comforting to have Riley and Lea there. All three girls weren’t normal and Ari relished in that fact.

“I err… wanted to thank you for the other night,” said Riley, moving over to Ari as she bit at her lower lip nervously.

“It was nothing,” Ari replied. “So I take it that the rest of the waeres didn’t want to join in on the fun?”

Riley looked from Clyde and then back at Ari, shaking her head.

“Paul and the rest of the pack have left the Isle,” she said, and Ari thought that there was sadness behind her words. “They won’t be back.”

Ari wanted to ask why Riley had stayed, but she thought she already knew the answer; she was staying for Clyde. For a moment Ari thought it odd that the girl had formed such a strong attachment to Clyde, after only having met him recently, but then she remembered the way the pair had been locked together the other night. Ari knew all too well about Clyde’s charms; he was charismatic, daring, sarcastic and above all, gorgeous. Still, Riley had given up a lot to remain with coven and fight this battle; a battle which she could have just as easily avoided. Ari thought that there must be something more than simply Clyde’s charm which kept Riley there.  

It was easy for Ari to see why Clyde liked Riley so much; there was a kindness to Riley, though it was hidden beneath a tough outer shell. From the way she dressed with her torn jeans and two sizes too big jumper, it was obvious that she didn’t give a damn what others thought about her, and Ari liked that. For a moment she wondered what it might have been like for Riley growing up; living in a world where waeres weren’t supposed to exist, always on the run.

Unable to stop herself from drawing an obvious parallel, Ari pondered, not for the first time, on what it would have been like if she had of grown up having parents. Would they have known about the Grandor legend; would they have been able to keep her safe? Having the powers that she did, meant that she was always going to be a target, and with this thought, a horrible truth came crashing down on her; if it weren’t for Ari being the Grandor descendant, then her parents would probably still be alive.

How could she not have realised this before now? She felt sick to her stomach. Kiara had only killed her parents because the Ancients had ordered the attack, and they had only done that because they were afraid of the Grandor descendant. Chill after chill assaulted Ari, creeping up her extremities and settling in her heart, until she felt entirely hollow inside.

“Are you ok?” asked Riley, just as Chris and Ragon turned to stare at her.

Ari wanted desperately to tell Ragon everything that she had discovered about her destiny. But now was not the time; she needed to be focused for Sandra. That could be tomorrow’s problem.

Faking indifference, Ari looked up and shook her head, pretending to have been caught in a day dream as she said, “What? Oh, yea fine.”

Both Chris and Ragon seemed satisfied and turned away, but Riley continued to stare at her, unconvinced.

“Have you heard anything yet?” said Ragon, looking over at Thomas expectantly.

Ever since they had met in the forest, Thomas had been gripping his phone as if his life depended on it. At Ragon’s question he shook his head in an agitated manner, and began pacing around the group.

The sound of twigs snapping underfoot caught Ari’s attention and she glanced around wildly, trying to find the cause of the disturbance. Before she could make mention of this however, a ringing noise distracted her. Everyone looked at Thomas, who reached for his phone and then answered it, putting it on speaker phone.

“Where are you?” said Thomas, growling as he spoke through clenched teeth.

“Meet me in the vampire library and come alone,” a harsh voice replied, echoing oddly around the still forest.

“How do I even know she is still alive?” Thomas yelled back, the colour draining from his face.

This question was followed by a long pause; everyone stared at the phone in horror and then a high pitched southern accent rang out from the phone’s speakers.

“…Thomas is that you? Don’t come, it’s a tra-” Sandra’s scarred voice said, and then the line went dead.

The group was silent, all staring transfixed at the phone which continued to beep.

“Isn’t it a bit risky going to the vampire library; there could be other vamps using it?” said Ryder, looking first at Patrick and then over to Thomas.

Thomas shrugged but Ari thought that Ryder had a point.

“So what’s the plan?” asked Riley, and all eyes fell on her.

She was now sitting on the forest floor cross legged, while Clyde stood behind her. It was strange seeing the pair together; could there be an odder match than a vampire and a waere? Ari smiled as she thought about this, recalling her own situation- a vampire and the Grandor descendant. So maybe you can’t choose who you love.

“Thomas you should go into the library first and we will come in after you. It’s got twenty-four hour access so we shouldn’t have any trouble getting in after you, that way we can catch the blood hunter by surprise. We need to wait until we can see Sandra, then attack,” said Ragon, as the group made their way back along the Three Prong Trek and towards the vampire library.

“That all sounds great,” said Patrick, “but how exactly are we going to do the attack part?”

At this both Thomas and Ragon looked hopefully at Ari, who in turn stared guiltily from Lea and Chris.

“We tried to find a way to break…” said Ari, about to explain about the curse until she felt her throat begin to burn. “We couldn’t find anything to help,” she said finally, covering her mouth as she coughed up white smoke.

Only Lea and Chris seemed to notice the effects of the binding spell. Ragon had looked momentarily disappointed, before glancing at Thomas’s, whose face had hardened.

“Well, I thought that Ari could wait until we are all in there and freeze everything; then stab the blood hunter with this,” said Thomas, holding up a small silver blade that was covered in a greyish powder.

“Do we know for certain that EDTA works on blood hunters the same way that it does on regular vampires?” asked Clyde, looking sceptically at the blade.

Thomas looked down and shook his head.

“I’m not thrilled about letting Ari take the blood hunter on by herself while we’re all frozen,” Ragon said.

“My freeze doesn’t work on Riley,” Ari said quickly.

“And I could hold the knife and keep away from Ari, so that her freeze can’t work on me wither,” suggested Lea. “I might be able to use a protection spell on myself to-”

“-hang on a minute, surely the 9 of us will be able to take out one blood hunter,” Chris said quickly.

“This blood hunter is more powerful than anything you could possibly imagine,” said Thomas, moving over to Lea and handing her the blade.

But before Lea could take the blade from Thomas, Chris had moved over to him and said, “What’s with you getting all the girls to do your dirty work?”

Thomas froze then took in a long breath, as if desperate to calm himself.

“The blood hunter will be able to hear Lea’s heartbeat; he will think that she is mortal and won’t be expecting her to be able to do anything,” Thomas said, taking his time to explain his thoughts.

“He’s right,” said Lea, taking the knife.

It was 6.55 in the evening when the coven, Riley, Ari, Chris and Lea, approached the vampire library. The first thing that Ari saw was a small sign pinned to the front door: ‘
Library closed for maintenance. Reopen at 8am.
’

“That’s odd,” said Clyde, looking at the sign, perturbed.

He moved over to the large doors and grabbing his student ID card from his pocket, swiped it, and waited. The doors did not open. He tried again, quickly wiping the black strip at the back of the card against his jeans, but still there was no movement from the solid glass doors. A grim expression spread across Thomas’s face and he moved over to where Clyde stood and copied his movements, using his own ID card instead. Instantly the glass doors scrambled to open, just a soft hiss spread across the group. What did this mean? Before anyone could react the automatic doors slammed shut and Thomas made to swipe his card again, until Ragon grabbed him by the arm.

“Wait,” he said, pulling Thomas towards him.

“What?” Thomas replied, glancing back towards the glass doors, clearly desperate to get inside.

“How are the rest of us supposed to get inside? Clearly the blood hunter has gone to great lengths to make sure that it is just you who comes. What if he kills Sandra when he sees us coming in after you?” asked Ragon.

Thomas shook his head vigorously; then with much effort stared Ragon in the eyes.   

“The back way,” Ryder whispered, looking at Ari for only a moment, before glancing sheepishly down at the ground, clearly surprised at his own hasty comment.

“Back way?” Ragon said, looking at Ari with furrowed eyebrows.

“Yea,” said Ryder, digging his feet into the ground. “I found a rear entrance at the start of the semester when we were looking for information about Ari. It’s at the back of the building; we can get in without anyone seeing us.”

“Are you sure?” asked Thomas.

Ryder nodded, still not meeting Ragon’s eye.

Ari’s mouth hung open as she glared at Ryder incredulously. Was he trying to get her in trouble? Ragon looked from Ryder and then back to Ari, seemingly able to connect the dots in his head.

“We used it to get in and have a look around,” said Ari, thinking that now was as good a time as any to confess. “Nothing bad happened.”

“Yea, me too,” said Chris, just as a wicked smile widened his lips, completely opposite to the guilty look on Ari’s face.

“Guilty,” said Clyde, raising his hand as he also admitted to the knowledge of the hidden back entrance.

Ari hung her head.

“You, what!” said Ragon, his words slow and calculating.

“Just because you treat me like a child, doesn’t mean that everyone else does,” said Ari, trying to keep her voice steady.

Ragon shook his head but did not argue.

“Ok,” he said. “We will go in the back; Thomas you go through the front.”

Thomas moved back towards the doors, but once again Ragon stopped him.

“Don’t do anything foolish before we get inside. Stall him if you have to,” said Ragon.

After that the rest of the group raced around the library and towards the rear of the building. It took only moments for Ryder to reveal the secret trap door that led to the underground tunnel.